Goal: Removing the First Obstacle (12)
The Espers divided on opposite sides stared at each other searchingly. An Jong-hyeok was the first to give instructions. He glanced at Hwang Ji-hyun standing beside him, and when she received his gaze, she stomped her foot, causing the previously quiet building to vibrate. Soon, the building was trapped inside a large sphere of earth that rose from the ground.
In an instant, the building was cut off from the outside and thick darkness settled inside. Espers with sensitive senses were merely startled momentarily before quickly adapting to the darkness, but not the Guides. The Guides standing behind Shin Woo-jun were in confusion, not knowing what to do.
It was because they had no experience working in the field as Guides, making the entire situation terrifying. The two Guides fumbled in the air before grabbing each other’s hands and trembling.
“I-I’m scared. Can we wait outside?”
“Y-yes. We can’t fight and we’ll just be in the way. So we’ll just wait outside…”
“Ha, where do you think you’re going? Hey, they’re annoying, someone move those things to the side.”
At Shin Woo-jun’s irritated command, two Espers came forward and dragged the Guides away. Even as they were pulled to a corner, the Guides kept begging to be let out. An Jong-hyeok, who had been quietly watching, sneered.
“Seeing how you don’t treasure them, I guess you don’t get along with those Guides either?”
The corner of Shin Woo-jun’s mouth twitched slightly. He glared at An Jong-hyeok with bloodshot eyes before spitting out words as if grinding them between his teeth.
“If some fucking bastard hadn’t diverted my exclusive Guide, I wouldn’t be dragging around those useless things.”
Despite the contemptuous tone, An Jong-hyeok merely burst into soft laughter and shrugged his shoulders. If anything, it was Shin Woo-jun who was provoked by An Jong-hyeok’s reaction. Shin Woo-jun looked at An Jong-hyeok with eyes so intense they seemed on the verge of losing all reason.
“Why is it like this?”
“Why am I the only one who has to be so dependent on Guides? Don’t you think it’s unfair?”
Shin Woo-jun had always thought this was truly unfair. It was already irritating enough to risk his life for work every time, but to receive inefficient Guiding and worry about going berserk on top of that was really too much.
“At first, I thought it was the tragedy of being a high-ranked Esper. Quite naively, I endured thinking all Espers with the same rank as me were struggling with Guiding.”
Shin Woo-jun stared into space with unfocused eyes before suddenly bursting into laughter.
“Haha, fuck… But that wasn’t it. Fucking hell, I was the only idiot. Even those bastards with lower ranks than me were receiving proper Guiding while I alone couldn’t. Does that make any sense? Going to the most dangerous dungeons and not being able to enjoy an Esper-exclusive charger called a Guide?”
Sa Hae-geon frowned at the half-deranged appearance. He didn’t like the fact that Chae Do-min had worked with such an unstable character, even if only for a short time. It seemed he had seen quite a lot of unpleasant incidents, shouldn’t the Center have provided industrial accident compensation?
“The Guide I finally found just acted like a jerk and only made me snap. And then fooled around with another bastard right in front of me.”
“You’re still the same, making unfunny remarks and blaming others.”
Sa Hae-geon nodded as he side-eyed An Jong-hyeok who was saying what he wanted to say. Shin Woo-jun was truly an Esper who caused discomfort in many ways. It was laughable how he treated Guides as tools, intoxicated by the fact that he was a top-ranked Esper.
Thinking about how Chae Do-min must have carefully comforted him whenever he didn’t get along with his paired Guide made Sa Hae-geon furious. Chae Do-min must have been struggling already with the shortage of Guides.
It was right to finish off Shin Woo-jun. From the beginning, there was no hope for a good resolution or expecting him to repent and reform. After all, he had formed an illegal organization, carried out terrorism, and made people anxious. An Esper who does that is not an Esper. Just a mere criminal.
“Well. How would someone who can receive Guiding comfortably from anyone understand my hardship? Talking about it just tires my mouth.”
“You talk too much. Just come at me.”
At An Jong-hyeok’s nonchalant voice, Shin Woo-jun clenched his fist. He glared at An Jong-hyeok with bloodshot eyes before ordering the Espers around him.
“Kill them all.”
Soon, as the sound of Espers moving busily in the darkness was heard, a large fireball flew from the front. An Jong-hyeok, smiling with one corner of his mouth raised, spread his palm and extinguished the flying fireball in an instant. Other Espers also unleashed attacks toward the assault team, but couldn’t achieve good results.
Confirming that everyone’s attacks were thwarted, Shin Woo-jun burst into laughter. He hadn’t placed high expectations on those fools anyway. From the beginning, he only intended to use them to buy some time against the enemies. But still, he had hoped they would hinder An Jong-hyeok to some extent.
Looking at the current state, it wasn’t even close. Shin Woo-jun sighed deeply at his pitiful situation and instructed the Espers.
“Secure visibility first. Break that earth sphere first, you idiots!”
An Esper stepped forward to break the giant sphere surrounding the building, but Hwang Ji-hyun and Sa Hae-geon were faster. They created a small swamp on the floor where the opposing Espers were standing, binding their feet just like when they had targeted the crocodile monster. The Espers were confused and struggled before finally escaping the swamp.
Although they were unaffiliated Espers who had been through thick and thin, their main opponents weren’t typically other Espers. Unaffiliated Espers mainly dealt with illegally occupied dungeons, ordinary citizens, or police attempting negotiations. It was rare to face Espers with higher ranks and more combat experience than themselves domestically, unless it involved illegal foreign organizations.
Nevertheless, they had gladly joined Shin Woo-jun with the thought that it would be fun, and they wanted to smash those proud faces. Not only that, unlike themselves who had extensive experience with killing, they thought they had a good chance against Espers who had only faced monsters, not humans. After all, killing humans and targeting monsters were clearly different domains.
But as the situation unfolded differently from their expectations, they were somewhat perplexed.
While the unaffiliated Espers exchanged glances and hesitated, An Jong-hyeok moved to confront Shin Woo-jun.
“Hey, hey! Fuck, stop him! Don’t let him get to Shin Woo-jun!”
A healing-type Esper who noticed this shouted urgently. Other Espers tried to rush to stop An Jong-hyeok but were blocked by the assault team.
“Can’t you see us? Where are you trying to go, ignoring us?”
Hwang Ji-hyun said this while using earth to bind the ankles of an Esper with the same ability as her. Sa Hae-geon also struck the wrist of an Esper charging at him with a knife using a whip made of water. The Esper who was hit by the whip groaned and dropped the knife, and Sa Hae-geon kicked it far away.
But Sa Hae-geon’s opponent wasn’t here.
‘My backup is Hae-geon. Hae-geon will help me deal with Shin Woo-jun.’
Recalling what An Jong-hyeok had said in yesterday’s meeting, Sa Hae-geon headed toward where Shin Woo-jun and An Jong-hyeok were facing off. But the healing-type Esper who had just lost his knife after being hit by the whip blocked Sa Hae-geon’s path. Sa Hae-geon stopped in place and stared at the Esper blocking his way.
It seemed he intended to stop him somehow even though he had lost his only weapon, the knife. To be honest, it was incomprehensible. What benefit could he possibly gain by foolishly siding with Shin Woo-jun and suffering like this? Especially as a healing-type Esper vulnerable in combat. Was he getting paid a lot? Even with a lot of money, it didn’t make sense…
Sa Hae-geon looked at the healing-type Esper with a pathetic gaze before wrapping the Esper’s body with the whip still in his hand. The water stream, which quickly transformed into a rope-like form, tightly bound the Esper’s body, restricting his movement.
The more the Esper moved, the tighter the rope constricted his body. Having easily subdued the healing-type Esper, Sa Hae-geon hurriedly ran toward An Jong-hyeok.
Meanwhile, Lee Seong-rok, who was exchanging punches with another healing-type Esper, exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow, even though he’s a healing-type Esper, he seems faster than Senior Woo-seok! That’s no joke.”
“Is my martial arts that bad?” Myeong Woo-seok asked.
Lee Seong-rok responded with a small laugh instead of answering. Then Hwang Ji-hyun, who was facing an Esper who controlled earth, reprimanded Lee Seong-rok.
“Why are you deflating your senior’s confidence? Do you want to die? Haven’t been beaten enough lately?”
Lee Cheol-min shook his head and sighed.
“Do you guys want to fight even in this situation? Geez, you troublesome people.”
After finishing his words, Lee Cheol-min walked toward the Guides who were trembling in the corner.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
